Structure dataset 28: Berbice Dutch

Berbice Dutch is extinct, its last speakers having died in the first decade of the twentyfirst century. The fieldwork on which the APiCS description of this language is based was carried out in the period 1986-1991 by the author and in the mid 1970s by Ian E. Robertson with speakers on the Berbice River and the Wiruni Creek, the latter a tributary of the Berbice River, in Guyana. Some minor differences exist between Berbice River and Wiruni Creek speakers, notably in the form of the 1PL and 3PL pronouns and in the loss of final unstressed vowels in some forms used by Berbice River speakers. Whether these differences are of recent vintage or represent the continuation of older dialect differences cannot be ascertained, given that an older corpus does not exist. In the description, data from Berbice River and Wiruni Creek speakers are used without distinction.